Ex-Navy destroyer now East Coast artificial reef

From Statesman.com: Ex-Navy destroyer now East Coast artificial reef
ABOARD THE MV DELAWARE — Some sailors who served on the Navy destroyer USS Arthur W. Radford gathered Wednesday to watch it be pushed to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to become part of a manmade reef.

"It's sad to see it being sunk," said Lee String, 46, of Westville, N.J., who served on the ship in 1985 as a welder, pipefitter and plumber. "It was once a proud-looking ship, but it's better to see it go to that purpose rather than razor blades."

Officials say the 563-foot ship, which was decommissioned in 2003, is the longest vessel ever sunk as an artificial reef in the Atlantic Ocean.

It took about 3½ hours for the ship to submerge. Water initially entered the ship through the seacocks and started flooding the bottom of the hull. Then, just before 4 p.m., the bow went up slightly and the stern quickly flooded as the ship went down.

"I didn't think she was going to do it at first. She definitely took her own sweet time going down," said Scott Horne, 39, of Portsmouth, Va., who served a tour of duty on the ship. "She always put up a fight for a lot of things when we were under way. She always had her own way of doing things, but the mission always got accomplished. It's the same with this — she put up a fight, and then when she finally decided to let go, she did."

Plenty of manmade objects, including several retired New York City subway cars, are already submerged in the Atlantic to create habitats for sea life and new opportunities for deep-sea anglers and scuba divers.

The Radford's resting spot is about 130 feet of ocean on what is known as the Del-Jersey-Land reef, named for Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland. It lies about 25 miles off the Indian River Inlet in Delaware; Ocean City, Md.; and Cape May, N.J.

"It's been a very quick and relatively inexpensive ship to reef compared to some of the large ships that have been reefed recently," said Jeff Tinsman, reef coordinator with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. "We are excited today. This is the last step in the process".

Officials chartered a ferry for those who served on the destroyer, journalists and others to watch the sinking. Many of the more than 200 people who took up the offer were wearing hats or shirts with the destroyer's name. Some carried books of photos that had been taken aboard the Radford.

The ship, named for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Dwight Eisenhower, was launched March 1, 1975, and commissioned two years later. Over the next 26 years, it visited Venezuela, Panama, Argentina, Brazil, Senegal, Oman, Bahrain, Nova Scotia, Italy, Turkey and the Azores islands off the coast of Portugal.

One former sailor who watched the sinking planned to visit the ship underwater.

Douglas Warner, 48, of Virginia Beach, Va., just retired after 30 years in Navy, including two years aboard the Radford as a combat systems officer.

"Being a diver myself, I'm looking forward to hopefully next year coming back up here and being able to dive on her," he said.

Also among those attending the event was John Betts, 58, of Rehobeth, Del., who had no link to the ship but was interested in seeing the sinking with his wife.

"It was very interesting. I'm glad we made the trip," Betts said. "It's a once in a lifetime opportunity."

Treasure Hunter: E. Lee Spence

From Wikipedia: E. Lee Spence
Edward Lee Spence (born 1947 in Germany) is a pioneer in underwater archaeology[1] who studies shipwrecks and sunken treasure. He is also a published editor and author of non-fiction reference books; a magazine editor (Diving World, Atlantic Coastal Diver, Treasure, Treasure Diver, and Treasure Quest), and magazine publisher (ShipWrecks, Wreck Diver); and a published photographer. Spence was twelve years old when he found his first five shipwrecks.

Dr. Spence's past work has been funded by such institutions as the Savannah Ships of the Sea Museum, the College of Charleston, the South Carolina Committee for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 1991 and 1992, Spence served as Chief of Underwater Archeology for San Andres y Providencia, a 40,000 square-mile Colombian owned archipelago in the western Caribbean. He has worked on the wrecks of Spanish galleons, pirate ships, Great Lakes freighters, modern luxury liners (cruise ships), Civil War blockade runners and submarines.

Discoveries
H. L. Hunley
Spence first reported the discovery of the Civil War submarine Hunley in 1970. Spence mapped and reported its location to numerous government agencies. The July 2007 cover story in U.S. News & World Report noted that the Hunley "disappeared without a trace" until 1970 when it was found by "underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence."

That report made no mention of novelist Clive Cussler, whose organization later (August 2008) dropped a lawsuit in federal district court against Spence in which it had claimed that they and not Spence had discovered the wreck in 1995. Both sides still claim that they and not the other discovered the wreck.

On September 13, 1976, the National Park Service submitted Sea Research Society's (Spence's) location for H.L. Hunley for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. Spence's location for Hunley became a matter of public record when H.L. Hunley's placement on that list was officially approved on December 29, 1978.

Spence's book Treasures of the Confederate Coast, which had a chapter on his discovery of Hunley and included a map complete with an "X" showing the wreck's location was published in January 1995.

In 1995 the discovery was independently verified by a combined South Carolina Institute of Anthropology and Archaeology (SCIAA) and National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) expedition directed by SCIAA underwater archaeologist Dr. Mark M. Newell and funded in part by novelist Clive Cussler. Later the same year, at the official request of Senator Glenn F. McConnell (chairman), of the State of South Carolina Hunley Commission, Spence donated all of his rights to the wreck to the State.

The Hunley discovery was described by Dr. William Dudley, Director of Naval History at the Naval Historical Center as probably the most important (underwater archaeological) find of the (20th) century." The tiny sub and its contents have been valued at over $40,000,000 making the discovery and donation one of the most significant and valuable contributions ever made to the State of South Carolina.

Other discoveries
Dr. Spence with KM17 Diving HelmetIn addition to the Hunley, Spence has discovered several historically significant shipwrecks, including the SS Georgiana (said to have been the most powerful cruiser built by the Confederate States of America).

South Carolina's law protecting both the State's and the salvors' interests in shipwrecks was passed following Spence's discovery of the Georgiana and his company Shipwrecks Inc. was granted South Carolina State Salvage License #1.

Spence states he has salvaged over $50,000,000 in valuable artifacts and has been responsible, through his archival research, for the location of the wrecks of the side-paddle-wheel steamers Republic and Central America from which over one billion dollars in treasure has been recovered.

On April 4, 1989, Spence announced his discovery that Margaret Mitchell, who had claimed her Pulitzer Prize winning novel Gone with the Wind was pure fiction, had actually taken much of her compelling story of love, greed and war from real life and that Mitchell had actually based Rhett Butler on the life of George Alfred Trenholm, a tall, handsome, shipping magnate from Charleston, South Carolina, who had made millions of dollars from blockade running and was accused of making off with much of the Confederate treasury and had been thrown in prison after the Civil War. Spence's literary discovery that had its roots in his prior discoveries of some of Trenholm's wrecked blockade runners made international news.

The Encyclopedia Of Civil War Shipwrecks by W. Craig Gaines additionally credits Spence with the discoveries of the following Civil War wrecks: the Constance (lost 1864, found 1967); Housatonic (lost 1864, found 1970); Keokuk (lost 1863, found 1971); Minho (lost 1862, found 1965); Presto (lost 1864, found 1967); Ruby (lost 1863, found 1966); Stonewall Jackson (lost 1863, found 1965).[Spence's own books, as well as numerous third party books, newspaper and magazine accounts, and archaeological reports describe his discoveries of the blockade runners Mary Bowers and Norseman and dozens of other ships of all types and nations in waters all over the world spanning a time period of over two thousand years.

Cartography
Spence is also a cartographer and has published a number of popular and archaeological (proximal, contour and conformant) maps and charts dealing with historical events, archaeology, shipwrecks and treasure.

International Diving Institute
Dr. Spence is a founder, owner and Vice President of the International Diving Institute, one of fewer than a dozen schools in North America that teaches and certifies commercial deep sea divers.[39]

Credentials and affiliations
Current President and Chairman of the Board of the Sea Research Society, Dr. Spence is a past member of both the Board of Directors of the American Military Museum and Board of Directors of the Cardiovascular Research Institute of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. He is a lifetime member of Mensa International and a former member of Intertel. Spence has an honorable discharge from the United States Army Reserves and has served as Commander and Vice Commander for Post #10 of the veteran's organization American Legion.

Education
Spence graduated cum laude from the University of South Carolina in 1976, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with an academic concentration in marine archaeology and won the Donald O. Bushman Award in cartography. His doctorate is a Doctor of Marine Histories (DMH) from Sea Research Society's College of Marine Arts.

Certifications
Sidescan Sonar Operator - Associates - 1989;
Shipwreck Consultant - Sea Research Society - 1972;
Open Water Diver - Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) - 1969;
Scuba Instructor - NASDS - 1967;
Commercial Diver (surface supplied air) - Palmetto Diving Association - 1966;
Scuba Diver - Florida Safety Council - 1963

Dive into Arctic wreck reveals historical 'treasure'

From Ottawa Citizen: Dive into Arctic wreck reveals historical 'treasure'
A series of dives last month to the rediscovered Arctic Ocean wreck of HMS Investigator has revealed glimpses of what Parks Canada archeologists believe to be an unprecedented "treasure" of historical artifacts preserved in silt below the deck of the sunken 19th-century British ship, Postmedia News has learned.

The July expedition to the vessel's resting place in Mercy Bay, a frigid patch of water off the shore of Banks Island in the Northwest Territories, saw divers collect a handful of evocative relics — including a sailor's shoe and a largely intact rifle — that lay "in plain sight" and were at risk of disappearing in the seabed sludge.

But their key finding was confirming the likelihood that "thousands" of other objects — scientific specimens, crewmen's personal belongings, architectural fixtures, a stash of vintage booze in the ship's "spirits room" — have remained entombed and protected in the Royal Navy vessel since it became trapped in ice, was abandoned and then sank during a failed search for the lost Franklin Expedition in the early 1850s.

"We were blessed with really exceptional weather and very, very co-operative ice conditions," Ryan Harris, a Parks Canada underwater archeologist, told Postmedia News.

"There's a very high level of siltation inside the hold and that actually bodes quite well for preservation of what will probably amount to thousands upon thousands — or hundreds of thousands — of artifacts that are likely inside the vessel."

He said the ship itself is in remarkably good condition and described the "surreal" experience of seeing a ship so rich in history coming into view with each dive.

The Investigator, captained by Irish-born Robert McClure, had left a British port in 1850 to join what had become a desperate search for the lost ships and missing 129 men from Sir John Franklin's ill-fated Arctic expedition, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror.

McClure entered the Arctic from the Pacific but was forced to leave the ship when it became locked in ice at Mercy Bay in 1853. He ordered the creation of a cache of supplies on the nearby shore of Banks Island, then led his men on a sledge journey across the sea ice to their rescue by another British ship at Melville Island.

The crew's eastward route back to Britain marked the first recorded transit of the Northwest Passage — a combined voyage by ship and sledge that won McClure everlasting fame despite his failure to find Franklin and the loss of the Investigator, which sank in 1854.

Last summer, Harris and his Parks Canada colleagues became the first people to set eyes on the Investigator in 156 years and earned international acclaim for the feat.

But this year's dives offered the first close look at the 36-metre-long ship, which Harris said appears to have held up well despite being submerged for more than a century-and-a-half and suffering regular grindings from the seasonal ebb and flow of sea ice in Mercy Bay.

Key to that preservation, said Harris, was the copper cladding on the hull of the Investigator that was applied to protect all Royal Navy vessels — including the Erebus and Terror — bound for ice-choked Arctic waters in Canada.

A metre-wide section of the copper shield at risk of being shorn off the ship by an iceberg was also detached and recovered by the team. It will be added to a growing collection of metal artifacts found throughout the Arctic that came from stranded British ships and were often salvaged by 19th-century Inuit and fashioned into tools and important trade goods.

That dynamic was also evident in fresh discoveries made last month on the shore near the wreck, where "McClure's Cache" and surrounding areas of Banks Island were re-examined by a Parks Canada research team headed by land archeologist Henry Carey.

They found further evidence that the tin cans, tools, barrels and other objects stored on land by the Investigator's crew were eventually salvaged by Inuit for use in hunting, cooking and trade.

Carey expressed awe at the "tremendous distances that the material from the HMS Investigator travelled through the Inuit trade routes and the ingenious ways that material was incorporated into Inuit life."

For example, he said, metal from McClure's Cache was eventually fashioned by a crafty Inuk into the blades of a pair of scissors with bone handles — a poignant blending of European and aboriginal material culture.

But the researchers believe local Inuit did not gain access to the ice-locked Investigator before it sank, a further reason to believe much of the ship's original contents will be recoverable in the coming years.

The latest finds at and around the site of the Investigator wreck are fuelling optimism that a Parks Canada-led search later this month — far to the east in the central Arctic archipelago — will finally result in the discovery of the Franklin ships that McClure and other would-be rescuers never found.

NOAA, University Of Hawaii, Research Maui's World War II Legacy

The remains of an SB2C-1C Helldiver carrier-based dive-bomber rest on the seafloor off the Maui coast. credit University of Hawaii
From the Underwater Times: NOAA, University Of Hawaii, Research Maui's World War II Legacy
SILVER SPRING, Maryland -- NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries' Maritime Heritage Program and the University of Hawaii's Marine Option Program have completed a survey of sunken World War II-era aircraft and shipwrecks along Maui's southern coast. The two-week survey continues a longstanding collaboration between NOAA and the University of Hawaii in providing students with hands-on training in maritime archaeology surveying techniques.

The survey team produced scaled drawings and took photographs of six wreck sites, including a carrier-based dive bomber (SB2C-1C Helldiver); a carrier-based fighter plane (F6F Hellcat); and three amphibious assault vehicles (LVT-4 and LVTA-4s), two with mounted with 75mm howitzers. The documentation is used to evaluate wrecks for deterioration and helps identify when artifacts have been moved or go missing.

During World War II, prior to major invasions in the Pacific, U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army personnel trained in landing craft and assault vehicles along Maui's southern coast from Maalaea Harbor to Ahihi Bay. Overhead, aircraft from Maui's Puunene Naval Air Station conducted combat practice runs. Amphibious operations and naval aviation proved to be two critical innovations of World War II that ultimately helped the United States secure victory in the Pacific.

Developing these new tactics, however, proved hazardous, as numerous planes and landing craft, and occasionally the lives of young servicemen, were lost around the islands. Today, the legacy of that period can be found in near-shore waters, where sunken aircraft and shipwrecks provide recreational diving sites, as well as habitat for marine species.

"The wrecks along the coast are like windows into the past and they remind us of the sacrifices made during World War II," said Hans Van Tilburg, NOAA maritime heritage coordinator. "The information collected during this project will help us better understand this chapter in our history and its significance to the Pacific."

For now, details surrounding the sinking of the assault vehicles near Makena, Maui, and the specific identity of the F6F Hellcat, remain mysteries pending further historical research. A project web site will be posted soon on the NOAA Maritime Heritage Program webpage. Funding for the project was provided by the University of Hawaii Manoa College of Natural Sciences.

Treasure Hunter: Mel Fisher

From Wikipedia:
Mel Fisher (August 21, 1922 – December 19, 1998) was an American treasure hunter best known for finding the 1622 wreck of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha, named after a shrine in Madrid for protection.

He discovered the wreck July 20, 1985. The estimated $450 million cache recovered, known as "The Atocha Motherlode," included 40 tons of gold and silver; there were some 114,000 of the Spanish silver coins known as "pieces of eight", gold coins, Colombian emeralds, gold and silver artifacts, and 1000 silver bars. Large as it was, this was only roughly half of the treasure that went down with the Atocha. The wealthiest part of the ship, the stern castle, is yet to be found.

Still missing are 300 silver bars and 8 bronze cannons, among other things. In addition to the Atocha, Fisher's company, Salvors Inc., found remains of several shipwrecks in Florida waters, including the Atocha's sister galleon the Santa Margarita, lost in the same year, and the remains of a slave ship known as the Henrietta Marie.

The site of the wreckage of the Atocha, called "The Bank of Spain", (a sandy area 22 feet deep and within 200 yards of the anchor location), is still being worked on and treasures are slowly being recovered. The emeralds from the Atocha are some of the finest emeralds in the world. They come from the Muzo Mine in Colombia. The emeralds of Muzo are renowned for their color and are the world standard by which all emeralds are judged.

Fisher was an Indiana-born former chicken farmer who eventually moved to California and opened the first diving shop in the state. He attended Purdue University and was a member of The Delta Chi Fraternity. In 1953, he married Dolores (Deo) Horton who became his business partner. She was one of the first women to learn how to dive and set a women's record by staying underwater for 50 hours. Mel and Deo had four children: sons Dirk, Kim and Kane, and daughter Taffi.

On July 13, 1975 Mel's oldest son Dirk, his wife Angel, and diver Rick Gage died after their boat capsized during their quest for treasure.

Mel Fisher hired Duncan Mathewson as chief archaeologist during the Atocha period, and Salvors, Inc. became experts in recovery and conservation of underwater artifacts, remaining active as of 2009. Fisher blended private and public interests when it came to underwater cultural resources. The Supreme Court of the United States confirmed Fisher's ownership to recovered treasure with a provision that Mel's company donates 20% of the artifacts to the state. Concern in the U.S., and Florida specifically, for protection of submerged archaeological sites contributed to the 2001 adoption of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.

Whereabouts of cannon remain a mystery

From SILive.com (report on Aug 6, 2011) Whereabouts of cannon remain a mystery
Members of the Staten Island Sports Divers, as well as the National Resources Protective Association, conducted a dive yesterday morning off the shore of the Conference House Park in Tottenville.

The group was searching for a 400-pound, iron cannon that was used during the Revolutionary War. "The location of the cannon remains a mystery," said Jim Scarcella, of NRPA. "We did a lot with the metal detectors, and we found what appeared to be an automobile bumper or chassis, but no cannon."

The historic weapon spent nearly 40 years chained to a stone pedestal on the side of the Conference House, before it disappeared on May 21, 1972 -- two centuries after the British operated it to repel an attack from American General John Sullivan and 1,500 troops from Carteret, N.J. It had been donated in 1933 by Virginia Cutting; it had been on her family's waterfront estate in Rossville for many years.

Nobody knows how it vanished, but over time, rumors have circulated, some suggesting the cannon is in the water. "We are going to regroup and evaluate our findings to see if we think it's worth another shot. It might just not be there," said Scarcella.

Meanwhile, on land, volunteers helped remove debris -- including traffic cones, bottles, oil containers, plastic bags, and driftwood -- from the beaches of Conference House Park. The next beach cleanup will be at New Dorp Beach in September. For more information, call Scarcella at 718-873-4291.

NOAA, University Of Hawaii, Research Maui's World War II Legacy

Fron the Underwater Times: NOAA, University Of Hawaii, Research Maui's World War II Legacy
WOODS HOLE, Massachusetts -- It's been called everything from the Graveyard of the Atlantic to Torpedo Junction. By whatever name, the seas off the coast of North Carolina during World War II were the site of a devastating period for the United States, during which dozens of ships—mostly merchant vessels—were sunk by German U Boats.

Today, the remains of those ships, along with several U Boats, rest at the bottom of the Atlantic. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimates that from January to August 1942, alone, more than 50 vessels were lost to the U-Boat assault.

"They sank ships at will," says Evan Kovacs, director of 3D photography for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's (WHOI) Advanced Imaging and Visualization Lab (AIVL), which is embarking on a 10-day mission to provide NOAA with the first 3-D optical survey of the undersea wrecks off the Carolina coast. The cooperative venture, funded by NOAA's Office of Exploration and Research, will also employ a team of divers and archeologists from the National Park Service Submerged Resource Center, UNC Coastal Studies Institute and the Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration Research and Technology.

"We hope to get a full 3-D picture of several sites so that NOAA can go back and assess the wrecks' condition and the impact of the ships on the marine environment," said Kovacs. "We're breaking new ground."

"This is our first large-scale marine archeology program with NOAA," said AIVL Director Bill Lange. "We hope it will be the first of many such cooperative programs." Lange and his team have been conducting similar marine archeology programs with the National Park Service and State agencies over the last 5-6 years.

From a purely scientific perspective, the mission presents a unique opportunity, according to NOAA, which has dubbed the project The Battle of the Atlantic. "For the first time, these expedition scientists will study a maritime battleground off the coast of North Carolina, " according to NOAA officials.

The mission, currently in progress aboard the NOAA vessel SRVx, employs a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) outfitted with several underwater 3-D and high-definition camera systems developed by Lange and Kovacs. Over the course of the survey, the ROV pilot will work closely with technical dive teams in surveying the wrecks previously identified by the side scan sonar survey. The NOAA NPS and WHOI teams expect to conduct these optical surveys and close up inspection task on targets as deep as 500-600 feet. The technical dive teams will utilize AIVL's smaller diver-operated underwater 3D and 2D imaging systems in order to acquire imagery that would be difficult for the ROV to accomplish.

The WHOI survey and mapping effort is the most detailed phase of the project, which is coordinated by NOAA's Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. Previous stages utilized a sonar system to provide a wide-area remote-sensing survey to give researchers a 'big picture' or birds-eye-view of the battlefield area.

NOAA then employed a multi-beam sonar system to "zoom in" on some of the wrecks for a closer look.

WHOI's mission will deliver what promises to be the most dramatic still and video images, which will provide the detailed data needed to fashion the large, two- and three-dimensional mosaic maps of the shipwreck sites.

"These videos will be used to create detailed pictures that researchers can use to monitor changes in that vessel over time" NOAA project officials say on their website. "The 3D videos will also make exceptional education and outreach tools. As a program that has dual responsibilities for both science and education, this system integrates perfectly with our program objectives," said Joe Hoyt, Principal Investigator for the Battle of the Atlantic Project.

Says Lange: "Using the imagery we collect on this expedition, we hope to work with NOAA in the future to create educational videos." A number of television documentaries are also in development to cover these expeditions.

Kovacs cautions that the mission is not without potential problems, primarily those generated from relatively deep waters and high currents that could affect the performance of the scientific instruments. "But," assures Lange, "we're very good at transforming work-class ROVs into sophisticated image platforms."

Using high-end deep submergence platforms, Lange and his AIVL colleagues have surveyed numerous high-profile wrecks, most notably the Titanic, as well as natural formations on the seafloor.

The WHOI researchers are particularly excited by their role in the Battle of the Atlantic project because of its potential to provide a first look at a critical piece of wartime history. "They've known about some of these ships for decades," Kovacs said, but this will be the first time the site will be surveyed and mapped in such detail.

In addition, project researchers will be on the lookout for one of the last of the known German U-Boats, which has yet to be found.

The WHOI portion of the project is funded by NOAA and private sources, Lange said.